Mark Bolyard dot Com
vBulletin Seo, Modifications, Hacks, Forum Building, Promotion, and Marketing

Finding the right host for your vBulletin forum can be a difficult task. Is the host going to provide you with the resources required to run vBulletin efficiently? Is the host’s support system responsive? Will I have enough bandwidth and space for my forum, and can I upgrade as my forum grows?

These are questions most new users of vBulletin ask themselves when trying to choose the hosting solution best suited for them.

What I have found is, in the beginning, getting by on a shared hosting plan will be fine. You’ll just be starting out. Visitors, members, thread counts, post counts, and overall server load will be minimal. For shared hosting, I recommend using HostGator. The have three shared plans to fit your needs, and you can start small and upgrade at any time. Additionally, HostGator offers dedicated servers should your forum outgrow the resources of a shared hosting plan. Cost of shared hosting plans typically range from $4.95 to $12.95.

Other companies offering shared hosting that I’ve had good experience with are BlueHost and iPowerWeb.

If you are a existing vBulletin owner that is in need of the next step in hosting solutions, you may be interested in a VPS server (Virtual Private Server). An advantage to a VPS server is, you get Root access, which makes backing up your forum and database a breeze. VPS plans also isolate clients sharing the same physical disk space. This makes it much less likely that your site will be hacked through a neighboring site because your VPS site is isolated – a distinct entity on the server. Additionally, with a VPS, you can host as many sites as you like (within the ability to provide those sites with adequate resources. A VPS server is more secure, and prices range from $44.50 to $120.00 a month. I highly recommend PowerVPS (www.powervps.com). They don’t offer a affiliate plan, so if you sign up, please tell them you were recommended by me (mark[at]markbolyard.com)

Last but not least, there is Dedicated Server hosting. If you would like to read more on the benefits of dedicated hosting, you can read this article Benefits of Dedicated Hosting. This hosting solution is the highest performance, but also the most expensive. A dedicated server is YOUR server, and only your forum(s) and/or websites are on the server so your not competing for server resources. However, you either have to know how to manage the server yourself or pay a company to manage it for you. There are many companies that offer dedicated servers, a few being ServerPronto.com and HostRocket.Com.

This business principle of continued contact and business relationship building has given rise to the popularity of online business forums, and of course, “theme-related” online forums. Online forums quickly establish empathy, set forum owners up as “experts” in the eyes of visitors, and serve as a promotional vehicle for other products and services that forum owners seek to sell.

While online forums are popular and the perfect method of relationship building, starting a forum and maintaining one can be challenging, especially in the beginning when members can be “few” and “far between”. The challenge for most new forum owners is to get beyond the initial start up phase and move onto a phase where the forum members themselves promote the forum simply by posting.

Although each forum is individual and personal, a few general guidelines should be followed or at least kept in mind when starting and maintaining an online forum. These are as follows:

1. Take care when choosing the type of forum and forum script or software that will be used. The forum should be easy to access, easy to use, and come with “visitor- friendly” features. All visitors should be made to feel welcomed and find the navigability of the forum, user friendly. Forum scripts and software may be overburdened with ads from the parent company and lead to a poor experience for visitors.

Some recommendations:

vBulletin® – Instant Community

2. The forum should have a good number of interesting and focused topics. The content should reflect the interests of the target audience, and every care should be made to have well-written and informative content that is updated regularly. This not only helps attract new members, it keeps older members from losing interest and defecting to other forums.

3. The forum should be Search Engine friendly. High activity forums, like popular blogs, provide a great reason for Search Engines to visit them frequently as they are brimming with fresh content all the while. Dynamic urls, session ids, etc. used by most forum software can be very detrimental to the forum health from Search Engine point of view.

When selecting a forum software, check if they are Search Engine friendly. With vBulletin, you can have a search engine friendly community by adding vBSEO: The Ultimate Search Engine Optimization Solution for vBulletin forums.

4. The forum needs to have a clear list of rules, a disclaimer, and most of all, good solid moderation. Visitors will quickly become frustrated with forums that have no clear guidelines, or feature rude, obnoxious, or overbearing members. Good manners are required as much online as offline.

5. Promotion, especially in the early days, will take considerable time and effort. Forums can be difficult to start (members generally are “shy” when there are only a few present), and the more posts that take place, the more individuals will join. This is a “snowball” effect of forums, so marketing must be done consistently, day in and day out, until the forum becomes more self-sustaining.

6. The owner of the forum should take an active interest in the forum and SHOW this interest by contributing regularly. Above all else, people join forums where they feel they will learn from the owner of the forum, and if the owner is never present, they quickly lose interest in the forum.

7. The forum should be targeted, yet diverse, encouraging older members to contribute, without making newer members feel uncomfortable. Cliques can form in forums, and this type of behavior should be discouraged by the owner and moderators. Every effort should be made to answer questions or comments by all members as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

8. As with all other Internet related ventures, care needs to be given as to hosting and maintenance of the forum. A forum that is always experiencing “downtime”, will lose members quickly, and a forum that has many coding mistakes will quickly frustrate visitors. As with Web sites, “cheap” providers of hosting and maintenance are not always “better”.

All in all, online forums can be a great way to generate income, develop a good reputation among clients, and provide entertainment and instruction for many individuals. Like with everything else, however, they take marketing savvy, and a great deal of time and attention to detail. The old saying, “You only reap what you sow” really applies to the world of online forums.

Shortly after announcing their vBulletin 3.6.8 Patch Level 1 to fix a security issue found mid October, vBulletin has released yet another security patch for a similar issue.

This release is a patch to 3.6.8 to fix a security issue reported to vBulletin within the WYSIWYG editor for Firefox. Only 3.6.8 is affected by this issue. The only changes in this release are for this security issue, fixes for 3.6.8 Patch Level 1 are also included with the patch.

The changed files are:
includes/functions_editor.php
includes/class_bbcode.php (This is part of the Patch Level 1 fix)
includes/version_vbulletin.php
There are no template changes.

If you are currently running the original release of vBulletin 3.6.8, you will want to apply this simple patch to fix the potential security issues.

Retirement may be a long way off for you – or it might be right around the corner. No matter how near or far it is, you’ve absolutely got to start saving for it now. However, saving for retirement isn’t what it used to be with the increase in cost of living and the instability of social security. You have to invest for your retirement, as opposed to saving for it!

Let’s start by taking a look at the retirement plan offered by your company. Once upon a time, these plans were quite sound. However, after the Enron upset and all that followed, people aren’t as secure in their company retirement plans anymore. If you choose not to invest in your company’s retirement plan, you do have other options.

First, you can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts. You do not have to state to anybody that the returns on these investments are to be used for retirement. Just simply let your money grow overtime, and when certain investments reach their maturity, reinvest them and continue to let your money grow.

You can also open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). IRA’s are quite popular because the money is not taxed until you withdraw the funds. You may also be able to deduct your IRA contributions from the taxes that you owe. An IRA can be opened at most banks. A ROTH IRA is a newer type of retirement account. With a Roth, you pay taxes on the money that you are investing in your account, but when you cash out, no federal taxes are owed. Roth IRA’s can also be opened at a financial institution.

Another popular type of retirement account is the 401(k). 401(k’s) are typically offered through employers, but you may be able to open a 401(k) on your own. You should speak with a financial planner or accountant to help you with this. The Keogh plan is another type of IRA that is suitable for self employed people. Self-employed small business owners may also be interested in Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEP). This is another type of Keogh plan that people typically find easier to administer than a regular Keogh plan.

Whichever retirement investment you choose, just make sure you choose one! Again, do not depend on social security, company retirement plans, or even an inheritance that may or may not come through! Take care of your financial future by investing in it today.